All posts tagged South Africa beer market

SAB Miller’s Castle beer has, for decades, been South Africa’s favorite brew. When tourists visit the country, more often than not it’s a pint of Castle that’s poured for those wishing to sample the local nectar.

Abroad, the brand graces the national cricket and soccer teams’ uniforms.

Getty Images

But there is a foe at SAB’s gates, aggressively targeting the premium end of the beer market that has found growth in the rising affluence of a middle class that is emerging from the shadow of South Africa’s apartheid past.

Heineken, together with Smirnoff-to-Guinness producer Diageo, Thursday opened a big brewery south of Johannesburg that will produce Heineken and Amstel, some of Diageo’s tipples, and partner Namibian Breweries’s Windhoek lager. None of these drinks is new to the country, and indeed they already have prominence in bars from Cape Town to Soweto. But this marks the first time they will be brewed by the owners locally. And this is going to make a big difference.